Confcience, and enters into fuch reasoning and interrogations as thefe: Are thefe things fo, and do I ftand trifling with my Salvation? Am I in danger of everlasting Flames, and do I lie playing in the Suburbs of Destruction? Hannibal is at the Gate, and do not Irun to my Arms? The Philiftines are upon thee, Sampson, and doft thou lie ftill? The Deluge is coming, and do I talk of Marrying, and giving in Marriage? I fee the Waters rife, and come up to my Ankles, to my Knees, to my Loyns, to my Neck, and am not I frighted? O Lord! The fnares of Death incompass me, and the pains of Hell are ready to lay hold of me! Either I believe an Eternity of Torments, that fhall attend a careless finful Life, or I do not; if not, why dare not I profefs my denial? Why do I play the Hypocrite, and make the World think I do believe it? What's the reason that I cannot shake off the fears of it if I would never fo fain? Why does fomething within me check me when I would be fo prophane as to deny it? Can I ever be ferious, and not believe it? But then if I believe it, what a Mad-man am I to loiter, when the Candle I am allowed to work by is almoft burnt out, and I know not how foon it may please my Great Master to extinguish it? Do I lead a Life which is the readieft way to Eternal Vengeance, and fhall I not ftep back and prevent it? Can I imagine God will blot out that everlasting Fire, to gratifie my vicious Temper; or detroy that Tophet out of tenderness to my Lufts and Corruptions? Can I conceive it poflible, that God will go from his Word, to please

please a stubborn Sinner? or prove a Liar, that I may go with greater eafe to Heaven? What great matter have I done for God, that I fhould expect fuch Favour? How have I obliged him? What, by my walking after the Flesh? By my greediness after the Meat which perisheth? By my contempt of his Exhortations and Admonitions? Is God to be obliged by Sin? Is the Almighty to be made kind by Folly? Is he to be rendred propitious by Affronts? What Fellowship hath Righteousness with Unrighteouf nefs? Or what Communion hath Light with Darkness? Or what Concord hath Chrift with Belial? Do I not know that I fhall be miserable, if I continue in that course I have held on hitherto ; and am I in love with Eternal Ruine? Am I certain that Iniquity will be my confufion; and am I refolved to dye? I have all the Reason in the World to believe that it was the Son of God that was the Author of those Threatnings and Comminations I find in the Gospel: Do I believe him to be the Son of God; and can I imagine that the leaft tittle of his Word will perish? I have run up and down in the World these many years, and hunted after thofe Vanities which fenfual Men do dote upon : But will these fave me when I die? Will not the remembrance of my eager purfuit after these Butterflies and Gaudes, fill me with Anguish and Sorrow? Have I lived in the World all this while, and am not Inearer Heaven than I was fome years ago? Muft my Body engross all my endeavours, and must my Soul be itarved? I have a Soul that cannot die, and muft not die,

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and must shortly appear before God's Tribunal, and fhall not I ftudy its Safety and Happiness as much as I am able? Lord God! fhould Death arreft me before I have made my Calling and Election fure, how fearful, how wretched would my Condition be? Should it fall to my share to howl in outer Darkness; How fhould I curfe the Day when first I saw the Light? How should Icry out, Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was faid, there is a Man-Child conceived: Let that day be darkness, let not God regard it from above, neither let the light fhine upon it. Let darkness and the hadow of death flain it. Let a cloud dwell upon it: let the blackness of the day terrifie it. Should those Tortures the Damned feel be inflicted upon me; How fhould I wish that I had lived all my days in Deserts and Wildernesses, and spent my whole time in Praying and Praising of God, and giving all my Goods to the Poor, and lived upon Bread and Water, and undergone the greatest Hardships and Severities; out-prayed a Saint, and out-fafted a Hermit, rather than ventured my Soul in fo flight a bottom as Worldlymindedness must neceffarily be? Oh! how fhould I wish, that, like the Gadarenes Hogs, I had leaped into the Sea, rather than run into excess of Riot, and precipitated my felf into boiling Caldrons, rather than into the Adulterous Bed; received burning Coals into my Bofom, rather than Partners of my Lufts into my Arms; and broiled in Flames fooner, than in the unhallowed Paffions, that have brought down Fire and Brimstone on my Folly? Should that burning Lake

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be my habitation for ever, O how I fhould imprecate all my merry Companions, that did alJure me to run with them into Folly and Vanity! O how I fhould wish that my Eyes had never feen them; that my Ears had never heard their Names; that my Tongue had been torn in a thoufand Pieces when firft it entertained difcourfe with them; that my Arms had been cut off when they embraced thofe pleafures, which, like Syrens, cheat Men into mifery and calami ty! O how 1 fhould curfe the place where my Sins were committed, the Perfons that occafioned them, the hour that ever I thought of them! O how I fhould wish that I had improved those opportunities I do now make light of, and believed Mofes and the Prophets that gave me warning, and turned to God while the Doors of Grace ftood open, and applied my self to the Minifters of the Gofpel, and taken Directions from them what I must do to be faved! How fhould the poffibility of fuch mifery fright and terrify me into watchfulness and seriousness? Is not Eternity more to me than a moment of Time? Can that Gold and Silver I enjoy, and do fo much prize and adore, be any motive to the great Judge of Life and Death to abfolve me? Can the pleasures of Sin be Antidotes against Sin? Or my Jollities procure a Pardon in that day, when God fhall judge Men according to the Gospel? What makes me thus stupid, that I fhould forego the Milk and Honey of Canaan, for the pitiful Garlick and Onions of Egypt? Doth God promife the Purple Robes, and fhall I take up with course and ill-wrought Stuff?. Doth

Doth God offer me a Royal Seat,and fhall I prefer a Shepherd's Tent before it? What Devil doth poffefs me, that I should prefer Dancing and Revelling for a few hours,before endless Joy? Where is my Reafon?, What's become of my Understanding? Am I bewitched, befotted, beguil'd, that I should believe a few flattering Motions of Flesh and Blood, before all the Oracles and Inspirations of the Holy Ghoft? Are there fuch things, or no? I do believe there are; why then am I not more affected with them? Can there be any thing more reasonable than Chrift's Precepts? What is there in them that should difcourage me? If God had commanded feverer Tasks, is not Heaven recompence enough? If the Prophet had bid me do fome great thing,would not I have done it? How much rather then, when he faith unto me, Wash and be Clean? I that forbear the greatest Delicacies, fhun the choicest Dainties, will not be tempted to Eat of the moft palatable Dish, when I am fenfible it will bring upon me the Pain, either of Cholick, or Strangury; nay, I that lying under a raging painful Diftemper, with my felf a Beggar, or the pooreft Body alive, and would be content to stoop to the meanest Offices, fo I might be but freed from the malady which torments me : Can fcruple to obey thefe Laws, when it is to avoid an Eternity of Pain and Flames? Was not Dives as ftubborn as I can be? And, have not I reason to believe, if he were on Earth again, he would think the Law of Charity, the easiest and the reasonableft Law imaginable? Have not I reason to believe, he would go beyond ZacheD